Taking the fight to breast cancer

16 October 2015 - 02:47 By Katharine Child

Bookkeeper Nonhlanhla Makamedi refused to accept that she had breast cancer. She thought it was a death sentence. She wouldn't go for treatment for two years. When she finally sought treatment at the Helen Joseph Hospital's Breast Care Clinic in 2013, she was encouraged by community health workers to "take the journey", despite the side effects of chemotherapy.She is now in remission and remains friends with some of the health workers.Since 2013 breast cancer survivors have been employed by the Breast Health Foundation to support cancer patients through their treatment. They also visit the homes of those who have skipped treatment.Foundation manager Louise Turner said that sometimes the chemotherapy made patients so sick their families didn't want them to continue treatment."Their husbands may say I paid lobola for a whole wife, not half a wife," said Turner.Many go for up to three years without treatment before returning to the clinic, "riddled with cancer" and it is often too late to cure them."Patients fear that chemotherapy will kill them," said breast cancer survivor Boitumelo Masilo.Often the women want to use ineffective herbal remedies instead of chemotherapy.Masilo said: "I tell them I am a survivor. I have been there. You have to go for treatment."Turner said community health workers were tracking all state patients having chemotherapy in Johannesburg and this scrutiny had resulted in only about 10% of them avoiding further treatment.Venezuelan fashion icon and designer Carolina Herrera and her daughter Caroline Herrera de Baez visited the Helen Joseph Breast Care Clinic yesterday.The formidable mother and daughter team donated money to pay for four of the community health workers who keep women in treatment."My impression is this is an extremely nurturing place. Women who come here feel safe. Sometimes going to the doctor is scary. The general consensus here is that I want to come here," Herrera De Baez said...

There’s never been a more important time to support independent media.

From World War 1 to present-day cosmopolitan South Africa and beyond, the Sunday Times has been a pillar in covering the stories that matter to you.

For just R80 you can become a premium member (digital access) and support a publication that has played an important political and social role in South Africa for over a century of Sundays. You can cancel anytime.

Already subscribed? Sign in below.



Questions or problems? Email helpdesk@timeslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00.